Enhance Digital Signage and Kiosk Solutions with Analytics

One of the many benefits of self-service solutions is the ability to measure ROI through analytics. Self-service solutions offer the ability to pull logs, diagnostics and usage information reports from the kiosk and digital signage. A comprehensive analytics program can provide the deployer with reports including information about the number of users who interact with the system and the duration, where and what the user interacted with, viewed, touched, etc. While this information is valuable for IT purposes, it can also be leveraged for marketing research. It can even give deployers insight into changes that may need to be made in the user interface.

 

Kiosk Analytics

Collect + Manage

Data can easily lead to information overload unless you utilize these three proven steps to collect and manage the data from your kiosk or dgital signage deployment.

 

Collection: This is the simplest step but is also a fundamentally critical one. In order to collect data, your kiosk must have software tools in place that will gather the different types of key information. There must be a mechanism where important data points are collected; these are primarily going to include usage stats – touches, length of the transaction, usage of specific components, etc. Choosing software that is equipped to handle and gather this information is crucial when planning your self-service kiosk deployment. However, simply storing this information would be useless. It is what you learn from the data that matters. 

 

Reporting: When it comes to answering the question of what to do with your data, there is a sequence of necessary responses. The first is that the data must be compiled; this is reporting. Reporting is the process of organizing data into informational summaries in order to monitor how various aspects of a self-service kiosk deployment are performing. If you have multiple kiosks in the field, whether it’s 10 units or 10,000, there has to be a mechanism by which this reporting is done that is not tied to each local machine. The best solution for this is remote monitoring software. A good cloud-based remote monitoring solution will give anyone tasked with managing a fleet of kiosks the access to dashboards with a variety of customizable reporting tools. Once the data has been collected and then compiled into reports, the next step is to learn from them.

 

Analytics: Once data has been collected and compiled into useful reports, there must be a final step of looking at the data in order to gain knowledge. Analytics is the process of exploring data to see patterns and extract meaningful insights, which can then be used to better understand and improve the performance of a kiosk deployment. For example, Clear Channel Airports has over 100 interactive digital signage kiosks deployed in over 25 different airports throughout North America. Using Meridian’s MzeroManage remote monitoring software, Clear Channel’s team can compile reports on specific sets of kiosks. Then based on the reports, an analysis may show that of the nine kiosks located at the San Francisco International Airport, two are underperforming. By analyzing the data, Clear Channel gains an important insight that can then be acted upon. Perhaps they realize both locations are very congested. The kiosks can be moved and the data analyzed again to see if the change worked. 

 

Kiosk Analytics

Engagement

Before, during and after consumers physically engage with kiosks and digital signage, there are visual interactions that can hold the key to personalizing the experience while maximizing the effectiveness and ROI for companies and organizations. 

The visual interactions can be broken down into different aspects of the user journey:

  • how close a person or group is to the kiosk or signage
  • the approach and the attraction
  • the visual engagement
  • relevant messaging and adaptive advertising

When people are near the kiosk, and in addition to potential and actual visitor counts, face recognition software can anonymously detect the presence of potential users and collect demographic group data in order to facilitate more relevant engagement and targeted delivery of brand messaging.  A camera in the digital signage can achieve the anonymous detection, and it is vital to protect the privacy of individuals by only using these real-time stats at an aggregate level for advertising and targeting on location – an individual’s data is not saved. This first step of improving the relevance of the content sets up the next stage: the approach.

 

The more targeted messaging and advertising generated by visual analytics results in higher likelihood of people approaching the digital signage and higher usage and conversion versus a “one size fits all” mass message. As people approach the digital signage, video and audio cues can combine to incentivize people to touch the screen and engage. An attract screen, with the more personalized experience based on the visual analytics and tools such as engaging animation, draws the user in more effectively and ideally has a clear call to action.

 

During the engagement, the power and value of visual analytics increase. The user and the user’s eyes are tracked to learn what content was on the screen when eye contact occurred and if eye contact was made with specific ads. Companies also learn which content and ads were not viewed or not on the screen by using the eye tracking. Capturing data on the length of time spent viewing specific types of content (dwell and attention time) yields learning on the true engagement with the kiosk.

 

Meridian’s MzeroSoftware suite features a camera analytics engine that makes visual analytics available for kiosks and interactive digital signage across a range of industries.  The interactive power of visual analytics helps companies create truly engaging customer experiences.

 

The visual analytics lead to dynamic learning and an adaptive advertising process in which companies learn which messages and ads work and what needs to be changed. The advertising player in the digital signage updates ad content targeted to demographic groups. The ongoing measurement of ads and targeting of groups and individuals results in superior customer experiences, higher conversion rates and higher ROI.

 

Armed with the powerful tool of visual analytics, companies can achieve even greater results if they obey perhaps the greatest rule of real estate in placing their kiosks and digital signage… 

Location

Robust analytics provide insights into the initial location placement, achieving successful results and even the potential need to move the kiosk to optimize service and results. The initial location of your kiosk can be pretty straightforward– and you should have a solid baseline of success – if you follow the location principle of placing the kiosk or digital signage where the largest number of people including your target audience will pass by or congregate.

 

Existing internal data can inform decisions on where to place kiosks in stores, businesses, common areas in a public location, etc. If you do not have that information, a self-service solution provider armed with best practices and analytics from a large number of deployments should be able to provide guidance on initial kiosk placement.  Then the usage and real fun begins …

 

There is power in knowing the proximity, demographics and counts of people in the area of the kiosk. Traffic and engagement patterns also vary by time of day. The adaptive learning of the visual and user touch analytics take all these factors and more into account and allow for more targeted messages to the kiosk users. More relevant ads and messaging result and lead to a better experience, higher conversions and better ROI.

 

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